Hibakusha condemn Trump’s new nuclear weapons strategy

February 4, 2018

February 4, 2018

The U.S. Trump administration’s new nuclear weapons strategy has immediately been met with strong criticism from Hibakusha and anti-nuke peace organizations in Japan.

The Trump administration on February 2 published its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), outlining future nuclear war policy. Under this policy, the United States will improve and update its nuclear arsenal through development of low-yield nuclear warheads and advanced cruise missiles. Japan’s Foreign Minister Kono Taro issued a statement welcoming the Trump administration’s new strategy.

Sakuma Kunihiko, who heads the Hiroshima Association of A-bomb Sufferers, stated that President Trump’s new policy will hamper the ongoing international efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, stressing that the policy should be abandoned. He said that Hibakusha have been demanding the total elimination of all nuclear weapons regardless of their type. Sakuma expressed his determination to work to help strengthen the movements opposing nuclear weapons.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council President Tanaka Shigemitsu criticized the recently-published strategy as “barbaric”. Criticizing the Japanese government’s welcoming of the strategy, Tanaka said that this fact alone shows that although the Japanese government last year submitted to the UN General Assembly a resolution calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, it was actually no more than a pose.

Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) Secretary General Yasui Masakazu stressed that it is necessary to promote international joint struggles to break down Trump’s nuclear policy which runs counter to the world trend demanding peace. He said that he will work even harder to help create an overwhelming global popular movement through such means as collecting hundreds of millions of signatures across the globe on the Hibakusha-led anti-nuke petition by 2020.